Apple backs down in face of EC warnings

Fruity peddler of elastic band powered toy phones, Apple has been forced to back down over its sales policies.

The European Commission has dropped two antitrust investigations concerning Apple's iPhone after the company reversed two policies that drew the regulator's scrutiny. Earlier this year the Commission started looking into the way that Apple's iPhone warranty policy operated within the European Union and hat development tools and programs could be used to develop Apple-compatible applications.

According to the Commission said in a statement on Saturday that Apple will no longer enforce a "country of purchase" rule on warranty repairs. This rule mean that if you bought a phone in England and moved to Rome you could not claim warranty rights. Apple has now appointed service providers to "offer cross-border iPhone warranty services in those member states where Apple does not directly take charge of repairs," the Commission said. The Commission was also investigating Apple's tightening in April of the licensing arrangements for developers of iPhone applications.

This required developers use only Apple's native programming tools and languages. The Commission said it could have "ultimately resulted in shutting out competition from devices running platforms other than Apple's." Apple has said that it would remove restrictions on using other development tools.